From the Couch Hole: Shut Your Eyes and Think of Somewhere

Previously on FTCH, the Time Lord was on the road to Gandolfo for his trial. The monkey heard the rhythm divine on the long walk to get the Enid cereal. This week the calendar turned to October, playoff baseball started (without my Rangers) and football is in full bloom. This week when you shut your eyes do you dream of electric sheep? Get smart like Ultraman about the trilogy of terror that includes Cheesy Buffalo Dip chips. Remember, FTCH, the fragrance destination.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Phillip K. Dick – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) (Published by Doubleday): “Future and past blurred; what he had already experienced and what he would eventually experience blended so that nothing remained but the moment.” I was about 20 pages into this when I realized that I may only think that I had read this before. It’s possible that double-digit viewings of the 1982 film had blurred my memories, but I finished this with an appreciation that I’m sure I didn’t have if I did finish it previously. It’s funny how Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is so much closer in plot and theme to the book. Building the science fiction around the character of Deckard, who is pulled right out of a hard boiled detective novel by Hammett or Chandler, is a brilliant move. Notoriously, those characters are social rejects with a conscience despite questionable work ethics.
  
  I appreciate that this wasn’t just a normal examination of android vs. human vs. hybrid exploration. Dick weaves in the plot device of the animals to make us think about compassion and empathy. Compared to Heinlein, I find Dick’s more philosophical discussions to feel more organic. They don’t go on for chapters at a time internally debating subjects. It’s weaved into the savior-like character of Mercer and Mercerism to show that religion isn’t separate from these type of discussions. I think this was an area that was needed in the original film to give Deckard another level of complexity. The ideas of biology vs. creationism are important when thinking about the lives of androids and what it means to be “alive”. I find Dick’s writing very accessible, and I’m glad I didn’t just set this aside as something I had read before. It was a discovery.

Buy Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

• Get Smart – “I Am Curiously Yellow” (1970) (S.5 E.26) (CBS): “Gun is like wife’s brother: do not work.” – The Whip. The series had moved to CBS this season, up against Let’s Make a Deal (ABC). That was not going to be a winning formula. The season continued the pattern of each episode being a movie or television parody in at least some way. This episode references the Swedish arthouse film, I Am Curious (Yellow) (1968). Unfortunately the “yellow” of the episode is a long list of Asian jokes and characters. These were different days. The show wasn’t breaking any new ground. Max, Agent 99, Chief, and Larabee are comfortable repeating the same jokes and physical humor. It’s best digested in small doses.
  
  This was the last episode of the series. I finished 138 of them. This project started in 2008 or 2009 when our local library had the DVD set for the First Season. I started this with my children when they were young, but unfortunately, it never got past the First Season when the library got rid of their copies. I picked it back up when I started recording it off of Catchy Comedy and just had to wait for the rotation to come around to where I had left off. This isn’t a series I thought I’d watch over a hundred episodes of, but I’m really glad I finished this piece of television history.

Buy Snow Patrol – Eyes Open CD

• Snow Patrol – “Shut Your Eyes” (2006) (from Eyes Open): “By the fire, we break the quiet / Learn to wear each other well.” Snow Patrol is one of those weird groups that I never think to name when I name favorite bands of the first decade of the century. Then I’ll come across a song like this one and remember that they had more than a handful of good songs. It’s funny that I like this song because it’s probably one of their least creative lyrically. This feels written for concert lyric yelling back at the band. Hearing it today, I’m brought back to a period in time when my children were 3, 9, and 10. It makes me smile.

• Trilogy of Terror (1975) (Directed by Dan Curtis): “This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening!” – Amelia. As the title suggests, there are three horror stories (based upon stories by Richard Matheson) all starring Karen Black. This comes from the era of high quality made-for-television films. I was amused to read that this originally aired on March 4, 1975. I had always assumed it was an October release. Director Dan Curtis already had a great reputation for horror direction, including The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). This film is heavily influenced by the British anthology films of the early decade from Amicus Productions. In fact, the middle story, “Millicent and Therese,” feels more like an Amicus remake than original story. The first story, “Julie”, feels headed down a very uncomfortable path at the start. The ending redeems it a little, but any fan of Night Gallery or Shirley Jackson stories probably saw that coming. It’s the third story, “Amelia,” is why everyone remembers this film. The Zuni Fetish Doll was all we talked about at school for a month. The story is simple and lets Karen Black do all work. It is a role that doesn’t differ too much than Agnes Moorehead in The Twilight Zone, but the doll makes all the difference. The film isn’t remarkable until that final story, but that story that fascinated me at seven, still gets me smiling at 57.

• Shin Ultraman (2022) (Directed by Shinji Higuchi): “Ultraman… Have you become so fond of humans?” – Zoffy. From the title, you might expect this to be a sequel to Shin Godzilla (2016). You’d be wrong and kinda right too. It’s written by Hideaki Anno, who was a co-writer and co-director of the Shin Godzilla (2016). The film is the second of a thematically similar trilogy (Shin Kamen Rider released in 2023). There are continued S-Class monsters appearing in Japan. The story follows the SSSP, a five-member team in charge of keeping track of the monster appearances. Ultraman shows up from outer space to help humanity and the team. This is the 37th Ultraman film and yet he’s not nearly known as well in the United States as Godzilla or Gamera. The film moves along at a breezy pace. There is a good mix of monster fights and human interactions. I enjoyed this film, and it makes me want to find some of the other more recent Ultraman flicks.

Best of the Rest

• The “dirty” soda trend has been bubbling under for at least a decade. I think I first heard of it as a hack at Sonic with Dr. Pepper and vanilla creamer. The definition has come to include some fruity syrup additions to soda, but I don’t count those myself. We’ve seen it become more mainstream with a Coffee Mate release and now the trend has had official releases at Sonic. PepsiCo has told Taco Bell that this is their lane in the future. I was slightly surprised to read that Mountain Dew was making it official. My best guess is that there won’t be any dairy coming to sodas near you. It makes little sense with Mtn Dew. What I expect to taste is more of a traditional cream soda mixed with the lemon lime orange flavors. I have mixed feelings, but you know that there will be a short review of it here next year.

• Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #2: Federal Express “Fast-Paced World” (1981): “In order to do something, you’ve got to get to work so let’s get to work, thank you for attending the meeting.” John Moschitta could speak at 450 words per minute. Before the ad ever aired, John was showing off his talents on That’s Incredible (ABC). If the style of the ad looks familiar, the same director would helm “Where’s the Beef?” for Wendy’s. This was a great campaign, and it put FedEx into my mind every time someone said, “it has to be there overnight.” I can’t argue with the EW placement of this ad in their list even if I would have had it in the teens.

• It’s often forgotten, but the sequel to “Fast-Paced World” was actually more humorous. I liked that “Ambidextrous” had the assistant behind him trying to keep up with the orders. I’m still giggling at it today.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 11/29/2009, I had taken the Thanksgiving week off, but the reason there hadn’t been a tuneage was because of a massive hard-drive failure. I was able to recover everything except a couple decades of Quicken data. I vowed to keep up with backups after fearing the loss of so many pictures. Turned out that when I had the next failure in 2016, that I also had some incomplete backups. The modern-day backup to the Cloud makes me feel much better. I was rested, the Christmas specials were starting to air, and I had an interesting Top Ten to consider.
  
  My #86 Top TV Show of All-Time was The Cosby Show (NBC) (1984-1992): It was credited with reviving the sitcom in 1984. I think that’s a little overstated, but I get the point that it made the sitcom dominant in the ratings in a way that hadn’t been seen since the late ’70s. The show finished in the Top Ten every season but the last. It holds the record with All in the Family (CBS) and American Idol (Fox) for finishing at #1 for five seasons. It’s been effectively cancelled from society, which is too bad. I don’t think I would rank it this high even if it weren’t, but it’s a show I expected to live on in reruns forever.
  
• THE BEST OF NEIL GAIMAN (2009)
  • 10. Black Orchid (Book One) (1989)
  • 9. Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (Book One) (1988)
  • 8. Smoke and Mirrors (1998)
  • 7. Sandman: The Doll’s House (Book Two) (1990)
  • 6. Stardust (1999)
  • 5. Coraline (2002)
  • 4. Sandman: A Game of You (Book Five) (1992)
  • 3. Mr. Punch (1994)
  • 2. Death: The High Cost of Living (1993)
  • 1. Sandman: Season of Mist (Book Four) (1991)
    
• THE BEST OF NEIL GAIMAN (2025)
  • 10. American Gods (Starz) (2017-2021): I haven’t read the book. To be fair, I didn’t include non-books on my original list. I feel like I need to include some adaptations to the list. This Bryan Fuller-developed series was really entertaining, especially over the first two of the three seasons. I won’t be able to read the book without seeing Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday.
  • 9. Stardust (1999): His fantasy work isn’t my favorite, but this combines some excellent mythology-type elements. I haven’t watched the 2007 film adaptation that I hear is relatively faithful to the story.
  • 8. Neverwhere (1996): The book is mostly a companion piece to the mini-series. Both are a decent story of an underground society in London. I wasn’t impressed with the mini-series, and I’m surprised that HBO or Amazon hasn’t picked this up for a remake.
  • 7. Black Orchid (1989): I was reading Sandman when this came out, but I wasn’t as into the series as I would become. This book with the Dave McKean art was a total revelation. It was arty and edgy but still existed within the DC Universe. I was just seeing some of the art, and it makes me want to dive into the long boxes and find this one to read again.
  • 6. The Sandman: Season of Mist (Book Four) (1991): Collecting Sandman #21-28, I love the art by Kelley Jones. Morpheus going to Hell to rescue a former love and to battle Lucifer is a story that feels like a peak for this series. You need to have read the previous issues, so it isn’t great to just drop in on this book. If you read the whole series, you’ll remember this story most of all.
  • 5. Coraline (2002): The movie is good and hopefully gets more young readers to the book. The book is great and builds upon the story in the movie. That feeling of being the new kid is perfectly captured.
  • 4. Norse Mythology (2017): My only fleeting familiarity with the Norse myths helped me not have preconceived expectations for the stories. His ability to connect the myths into a cohesive story makes this an entertaining novel.
  • 3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013): I thought hard about this being my favorite piece by Neil Gaiman because it’s very Ray Bradbury in plot and style. The theme of stepping off the path to look at your surroundings is a great lesson. I don’t get emotional about many books, but I remember having many feelings when I read this in 2013.
  • 2. The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes (Book One) (1988): It’s hard for people who shop in comic stores today to imagine how different it was to see this title on the shelves monthly. There were a few independent comics out there, mostly in B&W, but this was groundbreaking. It was a mainstream company releasing some groundbreaking work. The story is also a perfect tone setter for the rest of the series. It’s here because of the role it played to open up the market for other creators.
  • 1. Death: The High Cost of Living (1993): I put this at the top of my list because it’s so much more accessible as a standalone read than the Sandman series. Plus, it has had such an influence on bringing young women into reading comics. That the character of Death is also about life and love makes it a fun, endearing read.

1975 in Review

• October – Avengers #140 (Marvel): “The Beast owes me, and I plan to collect.” – Patsy Walker. Cover by Gil Kane. Written by Steve Englehart. Art by George Tuska. This is the last issue of decent artist, George Tuska. They announce that a young guy, George Perez, will be taking over next issue. I hope he can handle the job. Vision and Scarlet Witch are back from their honeymoon, so the book makes one last use of Beast before sending him away and solves Yellowjacket’s issue by some fancy work from Vision. It all leaves the title at an ending/starting point for the next creative team.
• October 2 – The first Chevy Chevette, a two-door hatchback, goes on sale. It gets 40 mpg, costs $2,899, and would become the best-selling small car in America in 1979 and 1980. It would be produced until 1987.
• October 11 – TV Guide. A show that I have almost no memory. The Family Holvak (NBC) stems from a popular pilot film, The Greatest Gift. It’s the story of a reverend and his family moving to a new town during the Depression. It has a stellar cast of Glenn Ford, Julie Harris, and Lance Kerwin. It only lasted ten episodes and would be off the air by the end of December. It’s odd for such a series to make a TV Guide cover.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“And when the worrying starts to hurt
And the world feels like graves of dirt
Just close your eyes until
You can imagine this place, yeah, our secret space at will” – Snow Patrol